Dark Reflections of the Moon
by Aondehafka
Summary: A slightly different take on a Ranma-Sailor Moon crossover.


Dark Reflections of the Moon  
  
A Ranma ½ - Sailor Moon fanfic by Aondehafka  
  
Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 is owned by Rumiko Takahashi and Viz Video. Sailor Moon is owned by  
Naoko Takeuchi.  
  
  
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"Hey, Akane! Over here!!"  
  
Akane jumped slightly. That had clearly been Ukyo. But why had the chef sounded so desperate?  
  
Peering through the crowds, she had her answer. Ukyo wasn't the only one of their group who'd  
made it here before Akane... Tatewaki and Kodachi Kuno were standing next to the chef.  
  
Akane pushed her way over to the trio. Apparently Tatewaki had somehow missed hearing Ukyo's  
cry, for as he caught sight of Akane his face lit up with surprised delight. He began to shift toward  
her, arms opening in preparation for an unwelcome welcoming embrace. "My fierce tigress, Akane  
TendURK!"  
  
Kodachi twitched her ribbon, releasing it from the chokehold around her brother's neck. "Brother  
dear... you promised."  
  
Tatewaki shot her a glare, but seemed unable to maintain his outrage under his sister's stern gaze.  
"Very well, let it not be said that the Blue Thunder's word is less than sacred. Akane Tendo, we  
must wait for a more private time to celebrate our passion."  
  
Akane held back a gag. Barely. She turned to Ukyo and asked, "So have you been here long?"  
  
"Got here as soon as the doors opened," Ukyo answered. Nowadays when she had somewhere to  
go she tried to get there as early as possible. After all, the last time she'd taken her time over  
something, two other girls had gotten their claws into her fiancé before she could do anything  
about it.  
  
"Brother dear and I arrived only a minute or so before you did, Akane," Kodachi added.  
  
The sympathy Akane had been feeling for Ukyo lessened noticeably. So she'd only had to put up  
with the Kunos for a minute, huh? To the girl who'd seen enough roses, red AND black, to choke a  
floral shop, that was nothing.  
  
Meanwhile, Kodachi had continued speaking. "I had just been about to ask this question when you  
arrived, Akane. Pray tell, what exactly are we doing this for?"  
  
Akane gaped. Ukyo gaped. Tatewaki gazed longingly at Akane, but as she was gaping at Kodachi,  
this didn't fray her limited patience any further.  
  
Ukyo was the first to recover. "If you don't know why you're here, WHY are you here?"  
  
Kodachi frowned slightly. "Ranma darling told me of this event and asked for my help." She  
gestured at the milling throngs of people around them, all of whom were dressed in costumes that  
fit a general trend. "The individual dressed in the best and most creative costume in the theme of  
Sailor Moon will receive copies of the entire manga series, signed by the artist herself. Ranma  
dearest asked me," she glanced to her brother, dressed to the hilt in a Tuxedo Mask outfit,  
grimaced slightly, and amended, "us, to come up with costumes, attend, and try to win that prize  
for him."  
  
"If you knew all that, then what was your question for?" This was Akane.  
  
"Well, Akane, it seems most unlikely that Ranma darling's taste runs to such doggerel as this silly  
shoujo series," Kodachi replied. "Why does he want autographed Sailor Moon manga anyway?"  
  
"Oh. Nabiki put him up to it. My sister likes to collect manga, and an entire autographed set of  
Sailor Moon is something she'd move heaven and earth to get." Or just tell Ranma that if he didn't  
try his best to get it for her she'd call in his debt, Akane thought sourly, thinking back to how  
desperate he had been when he asked her to help him out with this.  
  
"And why is he not able to be here himself?" Kuno demanded. "If the mighty Blue Thunder can  
swallow his dignity enough to garb himself in such ridiculous clothing, surely one as base as  
Saotome should have no difficultOUCH!"  
  
Kodachi smiled sweetly and stepped off her brother's foot. "Yes, why wasn't Ranma darling able to  
attend?"  
  
'Think fast, Akane, think fast.' The reason he'd given Akane had been the fact that there were  
certain to be plenty of Sailor Moon fangirls who'd brought along their very own 'moon cats'.  
But Akane didn't want to talk about Ranma's phobia behind his back like that. At the very least,  
she didn't want to remind Kuno of it and risk him stupidly trying that tactic against Ranma again.  
ONE moment of sheer embarrassment in front of the entire student body had been enough for her,  
thank you very much!  
  
Ukyo answered while Akane was still trying to come up with something. "After Nabiki heard about  
him getting other people to help out, she told him to let us handle it, she had something else for  
him to take care of personally." Not bad for a spur of the moment invention, the chef thought  
smugly. Seeking to change the subject, she asked, "Why didn't he explain any of this to you?  
Weren't you curious at all?"  
  
"It was not the fiend Saotome," Kuno winced as his sister's heel crushed his instep again, "but  
rather the pigtailed goddess who enlisted my aid. And I fear I was so overcome by her beauty that  
my intelligence quite left me at the time. I can only remember the barest details of what she told me."  
  
Kodachi made a moue of discontentment. "As to my case, he may have given me the details of  
which you have spoken. I simply cannot recall. For when dearest Ranma began explaining the rules  
regarding costuming, that it was permitted to create original characters in the general theme or  
style of the Sailor Moon series, I was struck with an epiphany! A revelation! I was overcome with  
a magnificent inspiration for the character that I would emulate. And so caught up was I in this  
flood of creative genius, that when I became aware of the world around me again, darling Ranma  
had already left." She sighed forlornly. "The poor dear was probably slighted by my sudden in-  
attention. No matter, when I present him with the prize it will surely atone for my discourtesy."  
  
"So you went original character too, huh?" Ukyo, who had little familiarity with Sailor Moon past the  
Beryl story arc, had erroneously pegged Kodachi as one of the Witches Five. "Who are you  
supposed to be?"  
  
Kodachi twirled in a quick pirouette. She was dressed in a modified fuku, with ribbons that  
streamed out from the shoulders and behind her, like wings. They fluttered with her movement,  
nearly poking a passing Makoto-clone in the eye. "Behold... Sailor Rose! The outrider of the Sailor  
Starriors!"  
  
"Sailor... Starriors?" Akane and Ukyo asked, uncertain where that had come from.  
  
"Indeed. Of the Star Kingdom, ancient rivals of the Moon Kingdom yet not truly their enemies.  
A kingdom free from the totalitarian regime of Serenity. A kingdom dedicated to peace and justice  
through personal choices, not the 'benevolent tyrant' enslaving others' will."  
  
"Um, you know, knocking the artist's original concept of the Moon Kingdom like that might not  
be the best way to win," Akane pointed out.  
  
"It was my inspiration and I'm sticking with it," Kodachi said flatly.  
  
'Oh well, at least she seems like she's really getting into the role, and it's a BIG improvement over  
her usual personality. No skin off my nose,' Akane thought. She turned to Ukyo, who was  
dressed in a purple and grey military outfit. It was a truly bizarre sight as far as the youngest  
Tendo was concerned--Ukyo's giant spatula was nowhere to be seen. Instead, there was a rapier  
at her side. Oh, and the chef was also disguised as a man, but that didn't strike anyone as  
particularly odd. "Who are you supposed to be, Ukyo?"  
  
"You know how there were these four Guardians that Beryl corrupted, right?" Ukyo had learned this  
in a quick crash course on Sailor Moon after Ranma had come to her and asked for her help.  
"Jadeite, Nephrite, Zoicite, and Kunzite? Well, I'm thinking those were the Guardians of the inner  
Solar System, and there were four others--the outer Guardians who fell in combat, but were never  
corrupted. Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire, and Opal... they were a lot stronger than those guys that  
lost themselves to Beryl." Ukyo drew herself up in her idea of a Moon Martial Pose of Honor. "I'm  
Diamond."  
  
Akane sighed slightly. "I wanted to be an original character too. But... the costume didn't turn out  
quite right..." And by the time she'd swallowed enough pride to ask Kasumi for help rather than  
sewing it all herself, there hadn't been enough time left for any option save one.  
  
"Don't feel bad, Akane. So far you're the best Ami look-alike I've seen here," Ukyo said.  
  
"Yeah, yeah, I get that a lot," she muttered. P-chan bweee'd sympathetically from his position in  
the crook of her arm. She patted him on the head, being careful not to dislodge the fuzzy black cat  
ears or crescent moon that Kasumi had affixed there.  
  
"Nice moon cat," Ukyo said with a barely suppressed smirk. Then, as a tidbit from the later series  
bobbed up in her memory, the chef asked, "Should I call her 'Luna-P'?"  
  
P-chan gave Ukyo a baleful glare. Well, as baleful a glare as a cute li'l black piglet dressed up as  
a moon cat can give. Which isn't very baleful at all, when you get right down to it.  
  
"Are we waiting for anyone else?" Kodachi asked, once again berating herself for how she'd  
zoned out when Ranma darling had been explaining the situation to her. Whyever had she felt  
such a strong connection to the idea of Sailor Rose anyway?  
  
"Yes, Ranma said he'd get Shampoo to help, and Mousse too if he could," Akane answered.  
  
"I wonder how much longer it'll take them to get here... Oh. My. God."  
  
Akane, Kodachi, and Tatewaki turned to follow the direction of Ukyo's stare. As one the girls  
broke out in hysterical laughter, while Kuno simply blanched.  
  
Mousse trudged over, bearing their humor with ill-concealed dudgeon. "Yeah, yeah, laugh it up why  
don't you. You think this was MY idea?! HELL, NO!! It was that dried-up old mummy's fault!"  
  
Shampoo, walking beside him in cat form, temporarily bleached white and with a crescent moon  
dyed on her forehead, continued to make noises suspiciously akin to laughter. She'd been doing  
so ever since they left the Nekohanten. Mousse chose to interpret these as cries of sympathy.  
  
"But... but... a Minako costume, Mousse?!" Ukyo managed to gasp.  
  
"Hey, at least somebody else MADE me cross-dress. What's your excuse?" Mousse retorted nastily.  
"The old ghoul thought it would be just too cute, what with Minako's Venus-Love-Me-Chain and my  
usual Hidden Weapons chain attacks." And so the Chinese boy had hidden his black hair under a  
blonde wig, and exchanged his robes for a Sailor Venus fuku with some strategic padding. Mousse  
tried not to think about it, or the memory of Cologne using a weak, tightly-focused chi attack to  
remove the hair from his legs in one flash of humiliation. At least his skirt was a few inches longer  
than standard senshi issue. "I can't believe I'm doing this for Ranma," he muttered grimly.  
  
Ukyo snorted. "Yeah, right. If I know you... and I do... the reason you're doing this is either  
because Shampoo asked you to, or her great-granny told you to. NOT for Ranma honey's sake."  
The cat at Mousse's side nodded, still snickering audibly.  
  
"Whatever," the Mistress of Love and Hidden Weapons said disgustedly. "This is just like Saotome  
too, leaving us to do his dirty work for him while he's off somewhere else."  
  
"Look on the bright side, Mousse," Akane said sympathetically. "Would you really want Ranma to  
see you dressed up like that?"  
  
Mousse blanched visibly and made a mental U-turn. "Good point. I hope he doesn't finish whatever  
other task Nabiki had for him and show up here after all."  
  
Ukyo frowned in puzzlement. Had Shampoo somehow given Mousse the same story to explain  
Ranchan's absence as the chef had come up with to feed to the Kunos? Oh well, she thought with  
a shrug, she saw bigger coincidences than that at least once a week.  
  
******************  
  
"So right now Akane, Ukyo, Shampoo, Mousse, the Kunos, and, *ahem*, P-chan, are occupied for  
the next six hours. You even got Kasumi interested enough in the event to go along and watch. I  
am impressed, Ranma," Nabiki said archly. "You managed to get all your fiancées and rivals  
elsewhere, working together to accomplish something for you, while you sit back and do nothing.  
A very impressive piece of manipulation if I do say so myself."  
  
"Hey, I'm learning from the mistress," Ranma said with an especially cocky grin. "Besides, you got  
one part of that wrong."  
  
"Oh, really? And what part would that be, Saotome?" the middle Tendo queried.  
  
"The part about me wasting this opportunity by sitting back and doing nothing," he replied. "That  
wasn't what I was planning at all. Of course, if that's really what you want..."  
  
"Less talk," Nabiki growled throatily, grabbing his shirt and pulling him toward her, "and more  
action." And after that, though things weren't exactly quiet, there WAS a complete absence of  
speech for quite some time.  
  
  
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Author's Notes  
  
Blame Christopher Angel. I recently read an untitled Ranma-Sailor Moon crossover on his page  
that blew the usual conventions for such right out of the water. That got me started thinking on  
other very-seldom-used ways to cross these series, and behold the result.  
  
Kudos to you if you recognized the sources of 'Diamond' and 'Sailor Rose'. For those who  
didn't, they come from Children of Fire by John Biles, and Featherbrite's Tale by Gregg Sharpe. 


End file.
